Characteristics of Dynamic Recrystallization during Hot Deformation for High Nitrogen Stainless Steels

Abstract

Dynamic recrystallization was studied for the stainless steels with nitrogen contents of 0.56% to 1.08% during hot deformation at temperatures of 900~1200 with strain rates ranging from 0.003 to 42 s-1. It was found that flow stress could increase remarkably with increasing nitrogen content. Flow curves during the deformation by 0.1~42/s at temperatures of 900~1200°C show a single peak, indicating the occurrence of dynamic recrystallization during deformation. The peak strain seems to decrease with increasing N content, suggesting that higher content of N facilitates dynamic recrystallization. The quenched microstructures were analyzed by optical microscopy, EBSD and TEM. The recrystallized grain sizes on the quenched specimens were measured and its dependence on temperature and strain rate was analyzed. At high temperature, continuously dynamically recrystallized microstructures were observed; whilst at low temperature, necklace-like partially recrystallized microstructures were found. Key words: High nitrogen stainless steel; dynamic recrystallization; stress-strain curves